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Tuesday, December 29, 2015

You may recall that last year I started Laura Dennison Design's Nativity for my sister's Christmas gifts. It took me a while to make the box portion, so I decided to add pieces every year. Thanks so much Laura! This year, I made all my sisters the holy family, Joseph, Mary and Jesus. I love that all of my sisters are named Mary and I got to make them all a Mary this year.
I noticed that Laura's patterned did not have a halo for Joseph and thought my family's tradition called for him to have one too. So, my Joseph's all have halos.
Next year, I plan to add the wise men and animals. I must confess that I was a last minute crafter this year and spent the last week before Christmas in the craft room every night. So, this year one of my New Year's Resolutions is to finish my UFO's (Un Finished Objects). And to keep myself accountable, I am starting a UFO Challenge Group on Facebook. I will have a weekly challenge and a monthly prize for anyone who participates in the months challenges. Want to join my group on Facebook? Just ask to have yourself added as a friend (if your not already) and drop me a PM that you want to be added. You can find my FB account on the right hand side of the blog, underneath my Networked Blog box. Check back on January 1, 2016 for more info on the UFO Challenge group!

Monday, December 28, 2015

I have a new niece and wanted to make her a baby quilt. I don't often quilt, but when I do, I love a baby quilt for color and size! I have been wanting to make a circular Bargello and when I heard I was to be an Aunt, I got started. My sister loaned me the Doheny Circular Bargello Rulers. I purchased to jelly rolls by Moda in the Bandana Floral fabric.

A big thank you to my sister Marge for letting me quilt this on her long arm and helping me with the white corner piece quilting. I really struggled to do squiggles and hearts. So, I quilted the circle portion and she quilted the corners and the center medallion.

For the white ground in the side corners, I found a ditzy print with tiny hearts. To help repeat the hearts, we quilted it with a random squiggle with hearts in it. We also, used a heart in the purple center.

Saturday, December 19, 2015

I love when my creative work matches a challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2! This week I am making ornaments for co workers with my A Child's Year Cartridge. For my co workers with grand children I used children silhouettes from A Child's Year and in the photo below you will see poor photos of other ornaments made with A Child's Year and Nursery Rhymes. Don't forget you can add two images together to get the right amount of children for your ornament! And if you make an ornament for more than 5 children, try cutting two images and placing pop dots between them. Show some one each side of the ornament to complete the family!

A comment on the glitter I used for snow...I recommend the Art Glitter Faux snow OVER Martha Stewarts glitter! I was running low on my AG Faux snow and decided to try Martha's, as I can purchase it locally and was in a hurry. Martha's glitter clings to the inside of the globe (notice the fuzzy photo). The Art Glitter snow laid softly on the bottom of the globe and let the Cricut cut shine through (I used only AG in the ornament in the tree photo and it was the best!). I used the Art Glitter Sticky sheet to cut the three girls with my Cricut and used the Ultra fine glitter on them. To add some stability to the children and keep the glitter in place while assembling the ornament, I cut a circle of transparency paper from Art Glitter. I stamped a delicate snowflake on them with white ink, but it is hard to see in the photo. The photo never does your work justice, does it?